Texas A&M Quail

We have two independent flocks. One flock is filled with regular old mutts; a variety of colorations. The other is pure Texas A&M. Texas A&M's are much larger than normal common quail and are all the same white color. With regular quail you can determine their sex by their coloration. You cannot do that with A&M's. My father loves the meat of the A&M's. Both types are prolific egg layers. They are also both major feed eaters. These birds need a good amount of space. Despite their smallish size we won't keep more than six in a 3x3 cage. Many more and they start eating each other even if you have more than enough food in the cage. They lay a large amount eggs!! If you plan on hatching their eggs then you need to be prepared to harvest older adults because their eggs are really easy to hatch. We have an extremely high hatching rate with our quail, so literally don't put more eggs in the incubator than you need. I've heard that the eggs are really good to eat, but they are so tiny you'd need five or six for each chicken egg you'd normally use. I will say this, both varieties of quail are really tolerant of being handled. Generally we can reach in and grab one without any fear of being pecked or scratched, but we do have to be quick with the cage doors because they know exactly how to get to freedom and they will try!